- Joined
- Nov 16, 2002
- Messages
- 9,948
Man, I need to start taking pictures. 
I've recently been carrying Kershaw's External Toggle as my primary EDC and am very impressed by every aspect of the knife. Grant and Gavin Hawk made an amazing amalgamation of fun and function with this one!
The blade is 3" of deeply hollow-ground Sandvik 13C26 steel with a serrated thumb-ramp containing a carabiner on its opening hole. The factory edge would have delighted anyone who likes Spyderco's factory edges (from Seki City, Golden, and Taipei) and quickly thinned and polished out for those who like large, pretty bevels. Very efficient cutter/slicer either way.
The handle is made of lots of aluminum pieces with steel bolts everywhere and a spring in the tail-piece. The reversible, deep-carry pocketclip has a built-in bottle opener which will be tested when I have some Red Stripe with my stir fry tonight (hurray beer!). The handle also features a safety switch which uses a steel bar (or thick guage steel wire) to prevent the knife from opening. This feature is great for carrying the knife with its carabiner clip or to prevent it from accidentally opening in your pocket (for when the deep carry pocketclip isn't deep enough). Due to the open frame where little fingers could touch the knife's edge and relative ease of operating the safety switch, never assume it will make the knife safer near children. It's a knife and you should never make that assumption anyways. The handle is contoured for strong, safe grips in the hammer, saber, and icepick positions. Edge-in icepick can also be done, but extra practice sure does help.
Also part of the handle and worth its own mention is the Toggle Lock and how it relates to the blade. Located at the tailpiece, the Toggle Lock operates with the dual pivots on the blade tang to both open and close the blade. A spring on the Toggle Lock provides guiding tension (knife should function without it, just relying on the same hand pressure an unlatched balisong would need) and the pivoted hinges on the handle frame allow the user to pop the knife open and closed in a wide variety of positions, angles, and circumstances.
David Lowry, aka Joe Dirt, posted a Kershaw video of the 1900 External Toggle on google video with Kershaw's permission and an uncredited hand model demonstrates a sampling of opening/closing techniques before the video moves on to a scene of robots making Kershaw knives (actual robotic machinery; not humans wearing pots and pans for clothing).
Some previous reviews on BFC suggested that the External Toggle would not make a good everyday carry knife. For me, this is not the case. The knife carries discretely; has a thin and sharp edge; and performs one-handed opening and closing with ease and as much discretion or as much flourish as the user desires. Didn't like being unable to convince my parents that it's not a switchblade (glad I didn't show them the Leek ), but to each their own.
Along with myriad ways to deploy and close the blade is that it can be opened and closed both quickly and quietly. Why is this important for the casual user? If you like opening and closing knives as a soothing mechanism, you probably have loved ones who have finally tired of hearing "click clak" for hours on end. The External Toggle lets you do such silly things without risk of a backhand for being too loud.
Thanks, Grant and Gavin Hawk and Kershaw, for the very cool knife!
I've recently been carrying Kershaw's External Toggle as my primary EDC and am very impressed by every aspect of the knife. Grant and Gavin Hawk made an amazing amalgamation of fun and function with this one!
The blade is 3" of deeply hollow-ground Sandvik 13C26 steel with a serrated thumb-ramp containing a carabiner on its opening hole. The factory edge would have delighted anyone who likes Spyderco's factory edges (from Seki City, Golden, and Taipei) and quickly thinned and polished out for those who like large, pretty bevels. Very efficient cutter/slicer either way.
The handle is made of lots of aluminum pieces with steel bolts everywhere and a spring in the tail-piece. The reversible, deep-carry pocketclip has a built-in bottle opener which will be tested when I have some Red Stripe with my stir fry tonight (hurray beer!). The handle also features a safety switch which uses a steel bar (or thick guage steel wire) to prevent the knife from opening. This feature is great for carrying the knife with its carabiner clip or to prevent it from accidentally opening in your pocket (for when the deep carry pocketclip isn't deep enough). Due to the open frame where little fingers could touch the knife's edge and relative ease of operating the safety switch, never assume it will make the knife safer near children. It's a knife and you should never make that assumption anyways. The handle is contoured for strong, safe grips in the hammer, saber, and icepick positions. Edge-in icepick can also be done, but extra practice sure does help.
Also part of the handle and worth its own mention is the Toggle Lock and how it relates to the blade. Located at the tailpiece, the Toggle Lock operates with the dual pivots on the blade tang to both open and close the blade. A spring on the Toggle Lock provides guiding tension (knife should function without it, just relying on the same hand pressure an unlatched balisong would need) and the pivoted hinges on the handle frame allow the user to pop the knife open and closed in a wide variety of positions, angles, and circumstances.
David Lowry, aka Joe Dirt, posted a Kershaw video of the 1900 External Toggle on google video with Kershaw's permission and an uncredited hand model demonstrates a sampling of opening/closing techniques before the video moves on to a scene of robots making Kershaw knives (actual robotic machinery; not humans wearing pots and pans for clothing).
Some previous reviews on BFC suggested that the External Toggle would not make a good everyday carry knife. For me, this is not the case. The knife carries discretely; has a thin and sharp edge; and performs one-handed opening and closing with ease and as much discretion or as much flourish as the user desires. Didn't like being unable to convince my parents that it's not a switchblade (glad I didn't show them the Leek
), but to each their own.Along with myriad ways to deploy and close the blade is that it can be opened and closed both quickly and quietly. Why is this important for the casual user? If you like opening and closing knives as a soothing mechanism, you probably have loved ones who have finally tired of hearing "click clak" for hours on end. The External Toggle lets you do such silly things without risk of a backhand for being too loud.
Thanks, Grant and Gavin Hawk and Kershaw, for the very cool knife!
. Sweet pics how well does it sharpen?
you sound like you're a great father ... every boy deserves to grow up in a home full of wicked-sharp knives, some with edges so thin that you'd swear a bit of light can pass through them.